Snyder establishes panel address to Flint water issue

Tuesday, teams of state workers will begin fanning out across Flint, offering homeowners bottled water and filters.

At the firehouses, “residents can pick up all of the resources they need to ensure their drinking water is safe, including bottled water, water filters, replacement cartridges and water testing kits”, Kelenske said. A city council member told The New York Times Flint’s former state-appointed emergency manager is responsible since he approved the switch to the problematic water source.

“We have not made a specific request for assistance yet, but we’re in a dialogue with the federal emergency management people, talking to them about how we can best work together”, Snyder said in a City Hall news conference.

Audio clip: Listen to audio clip.

On Monday, the governor was in Flint to announce the formation of a joint city-state panel to examine the city’s water crisis and ways to address it. The initial report says the department’s response to health concerns was “often one of aggressive dismissal” and “completely unacceptable”. He says both state and federal agencies have been too reliant on “technical compliance”, rather than making sure that people have safe drinking water.

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver met in Lansing with Snyder on Thursday and said preliminary estimates to fix Flint water distribution infrastructure damaged by corrosive water from the Flint River have ranged from millions of dollars to as high as $1.5 billion. The new supply corroded the city’s pipes, leaching lead into the tap water. That prompted a Snyder apology and the December 29 resignation of DEQ Director Dan Wyant. “And that is something I apologize for in terms of the state’s role in all of this”.

During a panel discussion, Todd said Donald Trump, a billionaire businessman and reality TV star who has been the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination “talks about distrust in political leaders”.

“We actually have liaison officers from FEMA in dialogue already”, Snyder said.

“I’d pay good money to see Rick Snyder’s reaction if someone asked if he would’ve let one of his three kids take a bath in Flint water when they were this little”, Pohl said last week in a mass email. Think of the shameful federal response to Hurricane Katrina, where the same lack of urgency delayed life-saving aid. Local residents are also moving forward with a class-action lawsuit over the crisis, and the U.S. Attorney’s office in MI has confirmed it is investigating the matter to determine if any laws were broken.